TO DO: fill in BLANK spaces below & MARGINS of your book with main points. 
Find & UNDERLINE in the text the themes UNDERLINED here below. 
Note, however, that links to other files & to the parts of this file also appear as if underlined: on them you may click to follow the link.

[NOTE on the meaning of the indicator numbers -- § 17-18a, etc. These are numbers that you will find printed in most texts and translations of Plato. They provide a standard key to finding any passage in Plato’s works; they are derived from the page numbers of an edition of Plato that was produced by the French printer-scholar Henri Estienne (in Latin ‘Henricus Stephanus’) in Geneva in 1578, thus they are known as ‘Stephanus numbers’.]

PART TWO. Working Out a New ‘RIGHT WAY’  [§ 357-471]
  Common View Summed Up:  [§ 357-67, pp. 41-53]
‘ RIGHT WAY’ [diké = Justice] defined as a compact [mutual agreement] not to do wrong nor suffer it, in other words, as a compromise .. not good in itself but necessary due to lack of power to do wrong 
PARABLE: magic ring of Gyges: advantage in doing wrong if can get away with it {IMAGE: parable}
  Counter-view: "Right" in itself is a good thing.
Take the polis as easier to study than the individual

 Imagine a polis made the ‘Right way’ -- a simple community [§ 367-72, pp.53-59]
  NOTE: state formed because no indivdual is self sufficing 
  NOTE: innate [= inborn] differences fit .. different occupations?
[cf Socrates' critique of craftsmen in the Apology.]
WHAT classes & types would there be in society? 
  ‘justice’ is where? somewhere in dealings with one another

 Simple Community Ridiculed: Imagine an Enriched Community  [§ 372-5, pp. 60-3]
 PICTURE of simple life  {IMAGE: utopian idyl}
 fit for pigs [ridicule], so enriched by adding luxuries: 
barbers, cooks, artists, ladies’ maids, poets, swineherds 
 luxury produces need for Physicians, Warriors:
 ART of WAR--specialty of Guardians [cf. Apologia 23, critique of craftsmen]

 Training the Guardians for the Enriched Community [§ 375-6, pp. 64-66]
like training well bred watch-dogs {IMAGE}
 Primary Education: Training the Soul  [§ 376-412]
 CENSORING the School CURRICULUM  [§ 376-392, pp. 67-80]
Why is Poetry NOT the "Right Way" to go?

 Power of Drama: Danger of Imitation  [§ 392-97, pp. 80-85]: Why must Guardians not be allowed to enact the part of a woman .. railing .. overwhelmed .. in labor .. much less in love .. ? 
 

{Have you read any works in this course that Plato would find dangerous?: 
 }
 Power of Music & Meter: Danger  [§ 398-400, pp. 85-88]
[What risk from certain rhythms? 
Power & Purpose of Teaching: Love & Sexual Excitement  [§ 400-3, pp. 88-92]
What can poetry do to the young? 

What therefore must we compel our poets to do? 

approving all that is lovely .. recognize forms
beauty inward & outward .. temperate love
What therefore about sexual pleasure? 

 Training the body: mastering body & soul  [§ 403-12, pp. 92-102]

 Selecting the Masters-Guardians  [§ 412-415, pp. 102-07]
 NOTE: watch them at every age [cf. Spartan education] .. ordeals of toil & pain
 devise .. convenient fiction .. bold invention {‘noble lie’} {IMAGE: myth}
{propaganda: cf. what poets are compelled to tell, above}

[How democratic is this plan? 

 Guardian Lifestyle & Duties  [§ 416-27, pp. 107-118]
forbidden to touch silver or gold .. serve without pay
giving EACH its proper color make the WHOLE beautiful {IMAGE: like painting}
community understood to be a well ordered WHOLE 
Rule against any innovation in established system of education [§ 424]
"novel fashions in music .. endangering whole fabric of society"
 In the Imagined Polis: Where does the ‘Right-way’ come in? 
Four qualities [virtues]: wisdom, bravery, temperance, justice:
 Where is wisdom?
 Where is bravery?
 Where is temperance [moderateness]?
[NOT in "mass of multifarious appetites--women & children & slaves" vs "reason & right belief .. in only a few"]
 Where, then, is ‘Right-wayness’ [‘justice’]? 
Any plurality of functions considered the extreme of wrong-doing 
[How does this fit with Plato’s basic beliefs about human society?]
[Cf Apologia 23, critique of craftsmen?  ]
[For contrast, note Pericles, in Pelop. War p. 145-46, on freedom & versatility as virtues of the Athenians ]

From POLI-tics to PSYCH-ology: Equation [§ 434-445, pp.129-143]
POLIS Compared with  PSYCHE [‘soul’]: 
<City’s Structure> <Citizen’s Structure>
CLASS in POLIS PART in PSYCHE TYPE Virtue  SYMBOLIC Metal
Rulers Intelligence  WISDOM gold
Guardians Feistiness COURAGE  silver
Workers Desire [appetite] TEMPERANCE bronze

‘Friends have all things in common’  [§ 445-471, pp. 144-174]
Does that include women & children?
 watchdogs guarding a flock .. breeding & training {IMAGE: homely example}
if set women same tasks as males must teach them same things
revolution .. training women’s minds .. careful to breed from best 
only offspring of better marriages should be kept .. 
 Warfare: preparation & conduct: 
brave man selected for marriage more frequently than rest
something mean & greedy in plundering a corpse [cf. Homer]

PART THREE. How to Put the New ‘Way’ into Use [§ 471-541, pp. 175-264]
  PARADOX: Philosopher would have to govern [§ 471-3]
WHAT do we mean by the word "paradox"? 

Why is it a "paradox" to suggest that a Philosopher might govern? 

[What did Socrates say in Apologia 31-33 about good man taking part in politics? 

  BEYOND PARADOX: The Image of Philosopher-Ruler
 Premiss: philosopher as best lover & lover of best  [§ 474]
What does the "best love" love? 
What kind of lover is Glaucon?
What part does "amorous playfulness’ take in the dialogue? 

The rest of the whole long section seeks to get up a rationale for philosophical rule. 
Reality, we are told, is hard for the many to know; at best they only get more or less of an notion of it. Only the very few manage to get to know reality itself. This rare real knowledge, then, qualifies these few to rule. 
This amounts to an oligarchy of intellect. To create and maintain it, specially gifted natures must be picked and trained in the SUPER-CORE CURRICULUM outlined here. 

The following passages defend the concept of intellectual oligarchy by arguing that there are different levels of knowing. 
Two kinds of imagery get used to make the point: first an abstract model [the line] and then a pictorial parable. {IMAGE: diagram & parable}

Diagram of the Line [§ 509-511, pp. 221-26]
On Plato’s diagram of knowing, at what levels would he be likely to place each of the three classes of citizens that Socrates examined and found wanting in the Apologia? 
 politicians?
 poets?
 craftsmen? 
 Allegory of the Cave  [§ 514-521, pp. 227-34]
" they would laugh at him .. they would kill him"
" Every feature in this parable .. meant to fit our earlier analysis"
In what respects does the "parable" also fit any other stories you have read? 
 

PART FOUR. Losing the ‘New Way’  [§ 543-592, pp. 265-320]
Corrupt Types of POLIS [city] & PSYCHE [soul]
Decline from the ideal of the SELFLESS single rule to ever more SELFISH and materialistic forms of rule by ever wider ruling groups. Note the place Plato assigns to DEMOCRACY, close to the bottom of the scale.
What similar attitudes to the MANY have been expressed at various points in what you have read? 
 
 

PART FIVE. The ‘Wrong Way’ of Learning   [§ 595-607, pp. 321-340]
Now that you know Plato a little better [think of Socrates and the great writers at the end of the Apologia], what might you expect him to return near the end of the work to emphasize about the nature and value of his competitors, the other writers? 
 
 
 
 

PART SIX. The ‘Right Way’ Here & Hereafter [§ 608-620, pp. 341-359]
  ‘Rightness’ Rewarded in Life  [§ 608-613, pp. 341-348]

  ‘Rightness’ Rewarded After Death [§ 613-620, pp. 349-359]
 IMAGE of the UNDERWORLD [.. not like Odysseus’ tale to Alcinous]
 hero .. valiant .. journey .. marvellous
place .. JUDGES 
two ways: upwards vs downwards 
& two doors {IMAGE: heroic journey, quest}
two directions: right vs left
wages earned by honoring gods .. dishonoring .. 

 shaft of light .. spindle of necessity [workings of firmament]
  {IMAGE: spinning, number, music}
 picking lots [choice of lifestyles]
How do Homer’s heroes make out? 
 Compare THIS Image of the Underworld with that in the Apologia. 
 What do the two have IN COMMON 
 Some big differences between the two versions: 

What life would Socrates choose?
 Compare THIS Image of the Underworld with that in the Odyssey? 
 What do the two have IN COMMON 

 Big differences between the versions: 

Chart the Times [BCE]: 

 How does Plato's model of 'the right way' differ from the Athenian model described by Pericles in the funeral oration? 
 

 Does Plato’s ideal ruler resemble traditional Greek rulers and heroes in any significant ways?
 

In what ways would Plato’s ruler differ from, for example, Agamemnon? 
 

 Especially with regard to his view of change in politics and culture, does Plato resemble more closely the Athenian or the Spartan model? [document from Thucydides] 
 
 

 Compare the imagined status of women in Plato’s model culture with their actual status in the classical polis.
 
 
 

 What strikes you most strongly about Plato’s ideas concerning love? 
 

In what ways do his ideas resemble those you have seen in other Greeks? 
 

Mention some important ways in which his ideas differ from the others. 
 

 Describe the role that Plato assigns to myth and parable in his imaginary society:
 

At the same time, however, what value does he assign to IMAGINATION in his account of knowing?